I found the first part with all the meetings and philosophical debates on earth to be boring and hard to follow too, but if you stop there you’re missing out on the payoff of all that exposition. It really picks up once he gets to the space station.

But I found the opening shot of the plants in the stream to be revelatory, a tiny bit of film making that changed the way I viewed life.

Fair enough! You've definitely given it the college try and I won't criticize that!

Out of curiosity, is there anything in particular about it you didn't like or was it a "just not my thing" kind of thing?

I did not feel engaged to the plot. The dialogue felt abstract and kind of went over my head. Someone mentioned that the film is "very Russian" and perhaps that is part of it. I have extremely limited exposure to Russian culture but it feels quite introspective to me. I noticed the dialogue sounding a little like Putin, just sound-wise. Lots of "mmm" sounds which in my language people make when they are considering their next words. Somehow I see a connection there (that probably don't exist, if I am being rational)

You might try the Solaris novel instead. The movie was based on it, but as you know books can be very different.